[gothic-l] Re: Franks: Arianism vs. Catholicism

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

--- In gothic-l at y..., czobor at c... wrote:
> Hails allaim!
> 
> I wrote in previous messages (No. 3784 and 3796) that I found the 
view 
> that language affinity played also a (little, secondary) role in the 
> decision of Franks for Catholicism rather than Arianism in Wolfram's 
> "Die Germanen", but I was not shure. I checked and found out that I 
> was right. I quote below the relevant passage (from: Herwig Wolfram 
- 
> "Die Germanen", 3rd Ed., Verlag C.H.Beck, München, 1997, page 85):
> "Die Besonderheit und Widersttandskraft der wulfilanischen Tradition 
> beruhte nicht zuletzt auf ihrer Volkssprachigkeit. Vereinzelte 
> Versuche römisch-katholischen Bischöfe,durch Predigten in der 
> Volkssprache die gothischen Seelen zu gewinnen, konnten dagegen kaum 
> etwas ausrichten. Die während des 5. Jahrhunderts in den Westen 
> abgewanderten gotisch-vandalischen Völker brachten ihren Glauben 
mit, 
> waren aber ihrerseits zu schwach, um die in Westen längst gefallene 
> Entscheidung zugunsten des Katholizismus rückgängig zu machen. Es 
ist 
> daher kein wunder, daß der Merowinger Chlodwig, der als Franke der 
> gotischen Glaubensüberlieferung wie der Sprache Wulfilas ferner 
stand, 
> sich - zumindest nach einigem Zögern - doch für den Katholizismus 
der 
> römischen Mehrheit seines Herrschaftsgebiets entschied. Dagegen 
waren 
> die Könige der Goten, Vandalen, Burgunder und schließlich die der 
> Langobarden zu Herren ihrer arianischen Kirche geworden, die jeweils 
> gleichsam den Platz der alten Stammsreligion einnahm."
> Below I try a tentative of translation (in English, I hope):
> "The specificity and power of resistance of the Wulfilan tradition 
> was based not in the last instance on its popular laguage character.
> Isolated tentatives of romano-catholic bishops to gain the Gothic 
> souls through sermons in the popular language were not very 
> successful. The Gothic-Vandalic peoples that emigrated in the 5th 
> century westwards brought with them their faith, but were to weak to 
> revert the decision for Catholicism taken by the West long ago. For 
> this reason it is not surprisingly that Chlodwig the Merovingian, 
who 
> as a Frank stood farther from the Gothic religious tradition as well 
> as from Wulfila's language, decided - at least after some hesitation 
- 
> for the Catholicism of the Roman majority of his possession. On the 
> other hand, the kings of the Goths, Vandals, Burgundians as well as 
> those of the Longobards became the heads of their Arian church, that 
> replaced the old tribal religions."
> As you can see, Wolfram mentioned the language argument only 
> incidentally and did not make it the main reason for the decision of 
> Franks for Catholicism. As in many cases, it was in the first line a 
> political decision, influenced by the fact that Catholicism was 
> the religion of the Gallo-Romanic majority of his kingdom.
> 
> Francisc


Hi Francisc,

thanks a lot for this quote. Your reading is quite correct 
and it becomes clear from the quote that also Wolfram 
regarded the language question as of minor significance. The 
question of Catholicism vs. Arianism was already decided in the 
Western Empire when the Arian Goths and Vandals arrived. My 
interpretation would be that Arianism held a lot of appeal to the 
Goths because of its 'volkssprachlichen' character, while Franks of 
the 5th century would not have regarded this language as their 
'volkssprache', especially as the Frankish elites in Gaul were 
probably already learning to speak  Latin/Romance.

cheers
Dirk




 In fact, for the Frank Chlodowech Gothic lacked in 
'volkssprachlichem' appeal meaning that a Frank would not recognise 
the language has his mother tongue, but mentiones that the decision of 
Catholicsim or Arianism had already been made in fabour of the former 
in the West when the Goths and Vandals arrived with their Arianism in 
the Western Empire. 


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